A deep dive into the GRISLY & HEARTBREAKING case of Navin Jones | EVERYONE FAILED THIS CHILD!
Are you Stephanie?
Yeah.
All right, I’m Detective Chavez. I’m going to be investigating this, okay? I’m going to be out to talk to you a little bit, but what we’re going to do is we’re going to go down to the police station, okay? So it’s a little more private, it’s warmer, and that way we can talk about what happened, okay? All right, you want her down there now?
Yeah, ma’am, I’m sorry to just have to tell you, but through all our efforts, there’s nothing that we can move further, okay?
Oh my God, you guys have time. [Applause]
The cop just told me, what the [ __ ] do you mean they cannot resuscitate him? That’s what I mean.
There’s no way. I’ve been telling you and the DCF that he needed to be seen! You guys are putting all your business out in front of them, that his behavior was not normal. Just make sure it was 8:15 last night.
No, what do you mean? You last saw him…
Yeah, last… last night.
[Music]
The body cam footage you just witnessed is shocking and unsettling, but the story behind this footage is like a real-life horror film. The parents shown in this footage are monsters, and they are more frightening than anything I’ve seen portrayed in any movie. They lived among us. Their unsuspecting house of horrors situated in a suburban neighborhood.
The walls of this house held a gruesome secret. A secret that was exposed on March 29th, 2022. The brutality that led up to this day should have never happened. There were signs these walls held secrets, but they were overlooked and ignored.
There is something terrifying going on with DCFS in Illinois. 8-year-old Navin Jones is the deceased boy pulled out of that house of horrors on the body cam footage. He was known to DCFS very well, but he was failed horribly, and we need to talk about it because Peoria County State’s Attorney Jodi Hoos does not.
She has been asked repeatedly about the gross f-ups by DCFS in Navin’s case and has no comment. They weren’t investigated or held accountable for the blaring missteps that led to Navin’s demise. I hope you will be as infuriated as I am after hearing the details about what happened to Navin and how it could have easily been prevented. Something stinks in Illinois.
You may have seen other videos on Navin’s tragedy, but in this video, I really want to dive into the egregious failures by Illinois DCFS in this case. I also want to talk about why it is in so many cases parents single out one child to take their wrath out on.
There’s a report from the DCFS Inspector General between July 1st, 2021, to June 30th, 2022, there were 171 children with DCFS contact that have lost their lives. That is a 40% increase from the year before. There are too many of these stories, and according to this report, they are only increasing.
When Illinois’s most vulnerable kids are in their darkest moments, it’s the job of the Department of Children and Family Services to shine a light on what’s gone wrong. But this report out Tuesday by the state’s Auditor General, looking at the last two years of DCFS performance, finds the list of missteps by the department is growing, not shrinking. Many of them uncorrected for years.
You can see that some of these findings are on repeat, dating back to more than 25 years. Alpa Patel is with the Cook County Public Guardian’s Office.
“DCFS accepted recommendations for improving behavior outlined by the auditor. It’s great that you acknowledge that there’s an issue, but again, what is going to change between this audit report and the one that’s going to come out two years from now?”
New outrage tonight over DCFS and children dying in the agency’s care. Republicans calling for emergency legislative hearings with DCFS leadership after another high-profile case involving a six-year-old who died.
Natalie is back with more.
Natalie, time and time again legislators and governors have called for change in DCFS. The agency facing decades of youth dying in their care, director turnover, and a lack of accountability.
“We’re going to take the energy to retrain all of our staff so they understand what the criteria is, what the priorities are, and how we look at and make decisions based on safety for our families.”
That was DCFS Director Mark Smith in 2019 after the high-profile deaths of four children: AJ Freund, Jamari Gibbons, Ta’Naja Barnes, and Semaj Crosby, under the agency’s care.
“I’ve been working to try and rectify the problems with DCFS ever since AJ Freund was murdered by his parents after DCFS failed them.”
Tom Weber represents the area where AJ was killed. He is once again demanding an overhaul of the agency after the death of 6-year-old Damari Perry, who, like AJ, died allegedly after being placed in a cold shower by a family member.
“Children like AJ and Damari were innocent, and we left them unprotected.”
All told, from 2010 to March 2021, 1,122 children who had contact with Illinois Department of Children and Family Services have died. Weber joined fellow Republicans in a virtual press conference Thursday, calling for the governor to step up.
“So far, Governor Pritzker has been silent on the issue. It’s time he speaks up for the children of Illinois.”
In 2019, Governor Pritzker ordered a DCFS study to identify areas of improvement. He also boosted the agency’s funding by $75 million. Three years later, it seems little has changed.
“But it is time that Democrats and Republicans join together in the General Assembly to truly reform the failed policies of this agency.”
That is one of the many reasons I make these videos. I hear these tragic stories of children dying gruesome deaths at the hands of their parents or family members due to violence, mistreatment, and neglect over and over again. You barely absorb the tragedy of one child before there is another headline of another child who suffered horrendous treatment and lost their life.
In so many of these stories, there were signs. DCFS knew the child and the family. There were reports made by neighbors, teachers, other family members, and in some, the child even asked for help. And time and time again, the child is failed.
We get ridiculous excuses from DCFS, judges, and law enforcement, and there are little to no consequences. In rare cases, we might get an apology, but most times we get nothing.
Now, of course, not all public servants that work in child services are bad, but their job descriptions are serious. I mean, a forgotten file, administrative mistake, or bad judgment call from the bench can cost the life of a child. I’m not taking the culpability away from evil parents. Believe me, they are responsible for the harm they caused their children and should be prosecuted accordingly.
But there are laws in place that are supposed to protect children from said parents that are outdated, archaic, or simply ignored, and that needs to change. There are also issues with DCFS taking children from loving families erroneously with no evidence. They are so upside down. They seem to drop the ball with children that really need help and also have a problem overstepping their power and removing kids from loving homes for baseless reasons. It’s maddening.
The problem seems so overwhelming it’s hard to know what we can do to make a difference, but we have to try. Children are powerless, so we can’t give up. We have to expose the problem and those that are failing the most vulnerable. We have to speak loudly without fear about the corruption and incompetence. Donate to causes that are trying to make a difference and keep fighting for change.
Navin Jones was one of those 171 children mentioned in the report by the DCFS Inspector General. This is his story.
Navin Alexander Jones was born December 27th, 2013, in Peoria, Illinois, to Stephanie Jones and Brandon Walker. Stephanie and Brandon were not married but lived together as a couple. What’s so heart-wrenching about this case is I can’t tell you what Navin loved to do, his favorite things, or much about him at all. He was robbed of his childhood. He was alive only eight short years. He never lived, really. He was only alive.
His obituary says, “Navin was a sweet, loving boy with a great smile who was full of personality and always happy.” I think whoever wrote this tried, but the always happy part, I beg to differ.
Little Navin’s first breaths were already tainted with suffering at the hands of his mother, Stephanie. He was born addicted to substances she used. Because of that, Navin and his brother were taken into DCFS custody. At some point, he must have been given back to Stephanie and Brandon, and I do have to say this: sometimes parents make mistakes and should be allowed to redeem themselves. And if they do get their kids back, I doubt it, but maybe Stephanie took steps to clean up and was given a second chance at raising Navin. But that didn’t last long.
Over the course of the next four years, there had been several reports to the DCFS hotline concerning Navin. Only one was deemed valid. It was found Stephanie Jones laid hands on Navin causing visible bruising.
Navin was able to get some relief from this monster in 2017 by going to live with his grandmother, Laura Walker. She is the mother of Navin’s dad, Brandon Walker. Laura was able to gain legal guardianship of four-year-old Navin and his older brother that same year.
While Navin was living with his grandmother, he was healthy and thrived for the first time in his little life. He had a chance at a childhood. For four years he went to school, had friends, and lived a normal life. But in 2021, his grandmother made a decision that she will regret until her last breath. I honestly don’t know what she was thinking, but she sent Navin and his brother back to Stephanie and Brandon.
It was only supposed to be for a couple days. Laura’s mother in Florida had an emergency, so Laura needed to go to Florida to be by her side. That decision was a death sentence for Navin.
According to investigators in this case, Navin was the only child that endured horrific treatment at the hands of his parents. His brother was found to be healthy and not subject to any neglect or physical harm. Emotionally is a whole different story, as he had to witness what was being done to Navin. But in general, Navin was the target of Stephanie and Brandon.
This is very common in cases like this, and I’ve always wondered why children like Navin are victims of what is called scapegoating. Parents that scapegoat may attack their child to release their pent-up frustrations and deep feelings of abandonment, toxic shame, or self-hatred. They might engage in splitting behaviors as well. They might pit one sibling against the other to create a camp of allies. Parents that split will also tend to see one child as good (the golden child) and another as bad (the scapegoat).
This process of projecting, shaming, and blaming serves to divert attention away from the rest of the family’s mental and emotional problems via casting the targeted family member into the role of scapegoat. In many families where scapegoating occurs, the harm is mostly emotional. It can be physical as well, but in most cases, the child survives. But in cases like Navin, the treatment ultimately leads to the death of the child. It’s slow and insufferable.
The suffering of the child makes the already sick and twisted parent feel power and control, offsetting their lack of self-worth and hatred. It can be generational. A child who grew up being treated this way may do the same to one of their children, and so on.
In Navin’s case, Stephanie seemed to be the one directly in charge, if you will, of inflicting harm on him. His brother was the golden child, and Brandon went along with Stephanie, never coming to Navin’s aid. In fact, he was hardly home and often took Navin’s older brother to work with him. So most of the time it was just Stephanie and Navin in the home all day, as neither child was enrolled in school.
But text messages between Brandon and Stephanie revealed he went right along with whatever Stephanie was doing to Navin and even encouraged it. These two were a match made in the depths of Hades. I like to try and understand some of the behaviors of these perpetrators. I think it’s important to educate ourselves so we might recognize behaviors and signs to be aware of. So if we see some of these, we can act on it and possibly save a child.
When Laura Walker came back from visiting her mother in Florida, she went to Brandon and Stephanie’s house to pick up the boys. But they wouldn’t answer the door or her calls. Laura called the DCFS hotline to report that Brandon and Stephanie were not answering the phone or the front door. Laura told the DCFS investigator she looked through the windows of the home and she saw a bunch of trash and clutter and old food inside. She also said Stephanie had a history of substance use and physical aggression towards Navin.
Now, this next part makes me angry and reeks of a cover-up by the police. The same day Laura tried to pick up the boys, not only did she call DCFS, she also called police for help. Police went to the house and left the children in the care of their parents. They made a report stating Laura did not want the boys, that’s why they left them with Stephanie and Brandon.
So let me get this straight: Laura physically went to the home, looked in the windows when no one answered, tried to call them over and over again, called the DCFS hotline and police. But then after all that, she told police she didn’t want the boys anymore? I call complete BS on that. I think law enforcement were trying to cover up the fact they didn’t make contact with the boys or the parents, and they dropped the ball, which ultimately led to them being called out to retrieve Navin’s emaciated, broken, and dead body from that home seven months later.
Laura has vehemently denied what is stated in that report and said the officer who took the report that day refused to help her retrieve the boys.
After several hours of trying, Laura Walker went back to the police department to report the children missing. A detective called Brandon Walker, who stated he was out of the state and refused to tell the detective where he was. Brandon said he would not give the children back to Laura and that he had legal custody of the boys. Laura told the detective she never gave up guardianship and that she feared her son and Stephanie were on the run to Florida.
The detective talked to a DCFS caseworker who said the children would be going into DCFS custody as soon as they were located. The detective wrote in his report that he was told by a friend of Brandon that Navin and his older brother were in Kissimmee, Florida. It wasn’t clear when the children left Illinois from the report.
After numerous unsuccessful attempts to locate the children, the DCFS caseworker spoke to Brandon, who said the family had moved to Florida and was not coming back. According to the caseworker, Brandon said he was planning to return to Illinois on October 21st, 2021, as the children had a doctor’s appointment. He agreed to let the caseworker see the children when he returned.
The caseworker called the children’s doctor and learned there was no appointment scheduled for either child. The older brother was last seen for a visit on June 30th, 2021, while Navin was last seen on December 30th, 2019.
After all of that, DCFS determined the claim made on August 17th, 2021, by Laura that the parents’ home was an unsafe environment was unfounded and closed the investigation. Even though Laura could prove she was the legal guardian and Stephanie had a history with DCFS. That was it. They just closed the case.
At some point between November of 2021 and February of 2022, Brandon and Stephanie brought the boys back to Illinois, and it wasn’t long before an anonymous tip was called in to DCFS. It alleged that Navin had black eyes from falling down the stairs. He was locked in the basement when the mother didn’t want to deal with him. Navin and his brother were not enrolled in school, and they were dirty.
DCFS attempted several visits with the children over the next week, all of which were unsuccessful. Brandon was reached by phone and said the children were not enrolled in school because he and Stephanie did not have legal guardianship of them. So right there he’s lying and contradicting himself because back in August he told the detective he had legal custody of the boys. He said the family had come home from Florida in January and was not able to reestablish guardianship.
DCFS was allowed to visit with Navin and his older brother. Both said they felt safe at the home and denied being harmed. Of course, the boys are going to say they’d rather stay with their parents; they were probably threatened with their lives if they didn’t.
Navin was observed to be sickly in appearance. The caseworker noted he was thin and small in stature. Both Navin and his parents said he ate regularly but did not gain weight. He was seen by the caseworker eating a bag of popcorn during the visit. Having Navin eat popcorn in front of the caseworker… nice touch, Stephanie.
The caseworker discussed Navin’s health issues and said the parents should take him to a doctor. Brandon said they would like to take Navin to the doctor, but they did not have legal guardianship of him. The caseworker noticed Navin looked sickly but didn’t do anything further, even though these parents had no legal custody of these boys and a history with DCFS.
Not only did she not do anything further, she put in her report although Navin looked sickly, she thought the boys were safe and actually recommended the custody of the boys be changed from Laura Walker back to Brandon. Unbelievable.
Did she happen to walk through the house at all and look at the boys’ rooms? Because if she had, she would have seen the jail cell Navin was living in and might have rethought her decision.
As if all of that wasn’t bad enough, this caseworker convinced Laura Walker to sign over her guardianship of the boys so Navin could receive medical care. Laura was hesitant to do so but did not want the red tape she was dealing with getting the boys back from Brandon and Stephanie to prevent Navin from getting the care he needed. She also thought since DCFS had visited the boys and seemed to be doing their due diligence, it was the right thing to do. So she signed the form and sent it back to DCFS.
The ball was completely dropped by this caseworker, DCFS, and law enforcement. And because of that, Navin would be dead a month later.
“Okay, what is your call-back phone number? I’m sorry, what’s your phone number? What’s the address you need the ambulance at?”
“1717 Northdale.”
“Is that a house? Is that a house or an apartment?”
“It’s a house.”
“Okay, what is your call-back phone number? Damn it. I’m sorry, what’s your phone number? Tell me exactly what happened.”
“My son, since I got him from his grandmother’s after she threw him out, he’s been doing a lot of really weird things like drinking his own urine. He’s pooped all over the house smearing it everywhere. Um, sometimes he’ll eat a whole bunch, sometimes he doesn’t want to eat at all.”
“Okay, what’s he doing today, ma’am? It’s getting late so I’m sorry, what’s happened today?”
“I went upstairs because I hadn’t heard from him and found him unresponsive on the floor.”
“Is he breathing?”
“No.”
“Okay, I am sending the paramedics before I called you guys and I can’t get anything…”
“Okay, is there a defib available? If so, send someone to get it now and tell me when you have it.”
“I don’t have one.”
“Okay, I am sending the paramedics to help you now. Stay on the line and I’ll tell you exactly what to do next. He is an adult, is that correct? I’m sorry, how old is your son?”
“Eight. He’s eight. Yes.”
“Okay, are you with him right now?”
“Yes.”
“Okay, I’m going to help you. I know you said you’ve tried CPR, but we’re going to go through this, okay? Tell me when you’re ready. What’s your name, ma’am? What’s your name?”
“Stephanie Jones.”
“All right, Stephanie, listen to me. Are you home alone?”
“Yes.”
“Okay, I want you to lay him flat on his back on the ground and remove anything under his head, okay? Tell me when that’s done.”
“I removed his clothes and he was cold, so I put him in the shower and used the hose. I don’t… I don’t know what to do.”
“Okay, how long ago did you find him?”
“Maybe 10 minutes ago.”
“Okay, so what we’re going to do is we’re going to go ahead and do compressions. I’m going to tell you how to do chest compressions. I want you to place the heel of your hand on the breastbone in the center of the chest right between the nipples.”
“I got to put on…”
“That’s fine. Please do that, Stephanie, okay? I want you to put one… place the heel of your hand on the breastbone in the center of the chest right between the nipples. Put your other hand on top of that. I want you to pump the chest hard and fast at least twice per second and 2 inches deep. Please let the chest come all the way up between pumps, and we’re going to do this until help can take over. I want you to count out loud so I can count with you, okay?”
“Okay, start. Yeah, I think they’re here. Someone’s knocking on my door.”
“Is your door unlocked? Okay, go unlock it and come right back immediately.”
“He lived with grandma for a really long time…”
One thing that stands out to me about this call is that it takes Stephanie over a minute to tell the 911 operator that Navin is unconscious and not breathing. She spends the first minute berating him and blaming the grandmother for his behavior. Navin’s behavior is the result of the unconscionable treatment from Stephanie and Brandon. It has absolutely nothing to do with his grandmother.
Stephanie is more worried about covering her own ass in this phone call than she is getting help for Navin. You can hear the 911 operator get frustrated with her and ask her why she called. Can you believe this monster disparaging a precious boy, her own son, like this at his death? This woman is vile.
The only reason Stephanie is crying is because she’s got to know what she’s been doing to Navin is about to be found out. Any fake tears or crying from Stephanie is for herself, not for little Navin.
Let’s go back to the body cam footage from the first responders.
“Looks suspicious, really. Chavez is in there right now… way under… they had right now… Grandma dropped off… biological… 65… dad works… 15… the last time… last night, yeah. I have them on the porch, both of them. She just made comments… 14… dad was all upset. She made a comment, I told his doctor they needed to get him checked out or something. Trying to keep…”
“I’ll be right back, get…”
“Ma’am, I’m sorry, I just have to tell you, but through all our efforts, there’s nothing that we can move further, okay?”
“Oh my God, you guys have… [Applause]”
“The cop just told me, what the [ __ ] do you mean they cannot resuscitate him? That’s what I mean.”
“I’ve been telling you and the DCF that he needed to be seen! You guys are putting all your business out in front of everybody, that his behavior was not normal. Just make sure it’s 8:15 last night.”
“No, what do you mean? You last saw him…”
“Yeah, last… last night.”
[Music]
“I’ll try to reach her to… okay, uh, what’s the co-worker’s name? Sorry, I… I said it. Nobody knows who has custody of the child… DCFS. So I don’t know DC… they just unfounded the most recent… so okay, I’ll let you guys know. I… I know for sure yeah, all three of them are going to need to go down there, so we’ll get…”
“Are you Stephanie? Yeah. All right, I’m Detective Chavez. I’m going to be investigating this, okay? I’m going to be out to talk to you a little bit, but what we’re going to do is we’re going to go down to the police station, okay? So it’s a little more private, it’s warmer, and that way we can talk about what happened, okay?”
“All right, you want…”
“Yeah, all three of them. All three of them. Yeah, Officer H is going to take you down there, okay? I don’t know who that is… [Music] but I don’t um… sounds like they might transport… um, so pretty much tell you kind of what’s going to have to happen from here.”
“I just talked to him last night! I just talked to him last night!”
“There’s… and again, there’s nothing I can say to make this an easier situation… um…”
“There’s no… there’s no… there’s no [ __ ] way. There’s no [ __ ] way. There’s no way! He was fine last night. Carried all the concrete…”
“Station with me…” [Music]
“Hello. Do I have to leave now?”
“You stay well here. When things kind of get rolling… um, because detectives are going to have to secure the house and make sure that we figure out what happened. I got to go to the police station.”
[Music]
Those so-called parents deserve an Oscar for that performance. Stephanie had zero tears, and Brandon acting shocked? Please, I wanted to throw up watching that.
Little Navin was pronounced dead at the hospital. The day after Navin’s death, March 30th, 2022, Stephanie Jones and Brandon Walker were arrested. It turns out both Stephanie and Brandon had pretty lengthy rap sheets for minor crimes prior to their arrest for Navin’s death. They needed to be taken out with the trash. It’s just infuriating it took Navin’s death to do it.
The investigation that ensued showed what horrors Navin had been enduring for the past seven months, if not longer. If he wasn’t locked in his room, he was locked in the basement. An 8-year-old prisoner in his own home.
His room had a bed with a stained mattress, no sheets, no blankets. His pillow was stained with no pillowcase. There was a dresser and one toy. Because Navin was rarely let out, he used the closet as a restroom. I’m sure you can imagine the filth and stench this precious boy was forced to live in.
His door had no doorknob, and ropes were used to keep it tied shut. There was also a note taped to his door written by Stephanie that said: “Do not give Navin any food or drinks. Do not let him out of the room. He has what he needs till I wake up. Do not be loud.”
How heartbreaking. She had him locked in there like an animal with instructions on his door. My God, they treated their dog better than they did this innocent child.
But it gets worse. At autopsy, it was revealed that at 8 years old, Navin only weighed 30 lbs. Some reports said he weighed 38 lbs, which isn’t much better. But the State’s Attorney said that is because when the hospital was trying to revive him, they pumped him with fluids. So that is where the discrepancy lies. The autopsy also revealed many bones and wounds in the process of healing, but also ligature marks on his extremities.
Let’s not forget that DCFS saw Navin a month prior to this. It said in their report he looked sickly but did nothing about it. Just advised they take him to a doctor and recommended custody go back to Brandon. There is no way that this woman did a proper inspection of the home. If she had, like I said before, she would have seen the jail cell Navin was living in.
Before first responders arrived after the 911 call, Stephanie made no attempts to clean up Navin’s room, remove the rope, or take the note off the door. So I can pretty much guarantee if that DCFS worker were to inspect the boys’ bedrooms, she would have seen the filth Navin was living in. Also, if Navin weighed only 30 lbs at death with, according to first responders, bones protruding and sunken-in eyes, how sickly do you think he looked when DCFS saw him?
The DCFS worker also stated on the stand at Brandon’s trial that she has since had “further clarification” on her report. Really, lady? That’s it? Not even an apology for your gross negligence?
The following is an interesting press conference with the State’s Attorney Jodi Hoos. I mentioned her at the beginning of the video. In this press conference, she’s great when talking about Stephanie and Brandon. She’s no-holds-barred and wants them served the justice they deserve. But I noticed when asked about the failures of DCFS in Navin’s case, she won’t comment. This had me yelling at the screen. They want that buried, I firmly believe that, and it’s unacceptable.
One of the reporters who is asking questions has a stutter. Some of the comments on this press conference were unkind to him, and that really bothered me. I thought he was asking good questions for the most part and poking at her to speak on the DCFS failures. So I just wanted to give you guys a heads up, be patient with him. He does struggle here and there with certain words.
“Thank you all for being here today. My office obtained first-degree murder indictments for Brandon Walker and Stephanie Jones, the parents of 8-year-old Navin Jones. In those indictments, we alleged brutal and heinous behavior in the death of Navin that make each of them eligible for a life sentence.
As you are probably aware, pursuant to earlier court records, police were contacted March 29th regarding an 8-year-old not breathing. When police arrived, they found Navin unresponsive, emaciated, with sunken eyes. He weighed just 30 pounds. At the hospital, doctors later found ligature marks on both wrists.
During the investigation, police observed the defendants’ house to be well-furnished, except for Navin’s room. Inside Navin’s bedroom, they found one toy, one dresser, and one bed that had no sheets, no mattress, and a pillow that didn’t even have a pillowcase on it. There was a padlock on his closet door, and inside that closet was a horrific odor of urine and feces. The door to Navin’s bedroom had no knob on it and had been tied shut with a string. There was a sign on the outside of his bedroom door that read: ‘Do not give Navin any food or drinks. Do not let him out of the room. He has what he needs till I wake up.’ We assume that note was for his older brother.
My office’s review of those facts, as well as the discovery of additional shocking conduct by the defendants, led to the addition of the brutal and heinous counts that we added today through the grand jury as well. We have filed a motion to increase both of their bonds that will be heard on Thursday when they’re formally arraigned on the new charges.
The shocking conduct that I’m referring to includes text messages between the defendants where they discuss locking Navin in his room, tying Navin up in the basement, beating Navin because he had urinated in his bedroom because he was unable to open the door to go to the bathroom. In the 911 call, the defendant Jones first complains about Navin before she even tells the dispatcher that he’s not breathing.
It was later that year in 2021 when the defendants took Navin. With his parents for the last six months of Navin’s life, starved and imprisoned, all by the two people there to protect him. The defendants spent the last several weeks of Navin’s life doing nothing for him, and I plan on spending the next several of mine bringing him justice.
As I stated earlier, Thursday the defendants will be up in court next for their arraignment on the new counts. Are there any questions?”
“Yeah, Jodi, first um… you mentioned that this is brutal and heinous. You mentioned that this faces up to a life sentence. Does the age too also make it a virtual life sentence because of the fact that he was under the age of 13? And is this um, if that is the case, what do you hope to gain by trying to do the brutal and heinous thing? We have seen many counts like that in the past. Is this more of a statement, or is this more of a way to try to punish them?”
“Well, the facts call for the brutal and heinous. Um, with regards to the victim’s age, it’s not a life sentence. It’s uh, normal first-degree murder is a 20 to 60-year range. Because of the victim’s age, they would be eligible up to 100 years. Um, but the brutal and heinous actually makes it a natural life in prison.”
“Are… could anybody else be um, charged with this? In other words, um, do the legal indictments stop with these two parents, or are you looking at anybody else to possibly charge?”
“Our investigation up to this point criminally stops with the parents.”
“Okay, so should I infer from that, ma’am, that as of right now things could change, but as of right now nobody else is going to be charged?”
“Based on the information we have today, that’s correct.”
“What do you think about how the agencies acted? You had a DCFS caseworker say that he looked not well—I think the term was ‘sickly’—six weeks, five weeks prior to his death. You have um, police officers trying to check in on them and apparently nothing happened. I mean, there were a lot of people along the way maybe who could have seen something, maybe who could have stopped it. What do you think about how we got here?”
“Well, I don’t really have…”
